13 Dangerous Encounter Part 3

Nexi and her mother rushed to the queen's side.

"Isn't there anything you can do to help her? Some healing spell? Anything?" her mother pleadingly asked Keya.

"I'm sorry, but I do not have any healing powers," the elf replied, crouching beside Morvin.

"Unfortunately, it seems the stave was cast using a forbidden spell which would forbid a weak creature like myself from healing her."

Naida wailed aloud, begging anyone to do something. Anything to stop her mother's now excessive bleeding.

"We need to get out of here this instant," Nexi's mother said.

Suddenly, another stave was cast their way. However, she saw it coming and that it was aimed at her daughter. There would be no time to block it due to its lightning speed. She hugged Nexi, preventing the stave from being plunged into her daughter. She whimpered at the electrifying sensation of the stave going through her body and fell to the ground.

"No!" Nexi cried out.

She placed her hands on her mother's wound in an effort to stop the bleeding.

Keya scanned the area but could not sense where the staves were coming from or who was casting them. All she knew was that she had to get herself and the children away from this place and back to the safety of the palace. This situation was too much for them to handle alone, especially with no guards to help them. It was clear that the caster of the staves was much stronger than her and the orcs.

"Do not worry," she assured the children, "I'm gonna get us out of here. I'll also save your parents."

"Please do, Keya. Please," Nexi begged in despair.

"Oblitem Telepor-"

The elf was interrupted by the appearance of a figure fully covered by black smoke. The queen and Nexi's mother attempted to stand up. No matter how hurt and weak they felt or how much blood they were currently losing, their motherly instinct to protect their children were on high alert.

"Keya," the queen said with a raspy voice, "take the children and teleport back to the palace this instant."

"But my queen," Keya said, "we can still save both of you if we teleport together."

"There is no time! Whatever this thing is, it could follow us back to the palace. I cannot allow that. Now, hurry and go! Get help and try to get ahold of the King. Nexi's mother and I will try to hold this thing off," the queen said, her body trembling in pain.

As much as the queen hated Nexi's mother, she needed her help to keep this monster away from the palace and their children. The elf hesitantly nodded at the queen's request.

"Oblitem Teleportus," she said.

She and the children were teleported back to the palace.

"No, Keya!" Morvin yelled.

"We have to go back! My mother is not well. We have to go save her."

The green-haired elf summoned the guards and ran to grab the palace telephone. She continuously dialed the king's number, but he was unreachable.

"Bloody hell," she muttered, frustration and anxiety clearly evident on her face.

She ran to the children and, reassuringly smiling at each of them to calm them, instructed them to stay in the palace with the guards and keep phoning their father. Under no circumstances were they allowed to step foot outside the palace, not until she came back with their parents or until the king came back.

"Guards! Make sure you guard them and find ways to communicate with the king. He needs to get here as soon as possible."

The children silently cried.

"The rest of you," she told the other guards, "follow me."

With that, she teleported herself and the guards back to where the queen and Nexi's mother were. Nexi's mother was barely managing to keep her body conscious as she began to feel weak. The queen was not doing too well. She also felt weak and fell to the ground.

The guards ran towards the smoke figure to fight. Seeing that figure was distracted, Keya took the chance to run to the queen's side and move her a few feet away from the ensuing battle. She did the same to Nexi's mother.

"We have to get out of here this instant," she told them both.

"Pathetic," the black smoke mocked, flinging some guards in the air and covering them with black smoke, which caused their bodies to vanish.

The guards' weapons and armour were all that was left, which fell to the ground with a loud thud. Keya hurriedly cast the teleportation spell but found herself unable to teleport back to the palace. The black-smoked figure clicked its tongue in annoyance.

"As if I'd let you do that, little elf," it said with a menacing aura.

It sauntered towards them. Smoky tentacles shot out of its body, grabbing the remaining guards. It covered them with the smoke, again leaving no trace of their bodies. The elf groaned as she was bound by its tentacle and struggled to free herself. She needed to save the queen for Naida and Morvin's sake. She needed to save Nexi's mother too.

"Please let us go," she begged.

The figure smirked, binding its tentacles around the queen and Nexi's mother. At this point, they were unconscious and barely moving. Their bodies started turning pale as their magical force was being drained by the tentacles.

"No! Please stop!"

The tentacles disappeared, and, like the guards, there was no trace of the queen or Nexi's mother left except for their clothes and jewellery. Tears rolled down the elf's eyes, heartbroken at the loss of the two women. The figure crouched in front of her, reaching for her face. Keya backed away in fear, and it smirked at her action.

"You listen to me, little elf, and convey this message to your king. This is what happens when you mess with me. Nothing and no one can defeat me. Well, except for that young girl possessing the Silver Ocean."

The elf stared at the figure, still unable to move.

"That child is my biggest threat and will be my biggest weakness in the future. I was planning on getting rid of her today, but those women, including yourself, ruined my plan. Those darn orcs were useless as well, letting the child escape."

Her heart was thumping, and a part of her felt like she was having a nightmare she wanted to wake up from.

'No, I must be dreaming. There is no way this is happening. This is just a nightmare.'

"Tell your king that I will do whatever it takes to get that girl, and whoever stands in my way will not live."

The smokey figure disappeared in a flash. The elf cried, running to the clothes of the women who were now gone from this world. Her head felt dizzy, and her mind went blank. All she could do was weep as she pressed the clothes tightly to her chest.

"No, no, no, no," she kept repeating.

'This can't be happening.'

(Author's note: The incident reveal is now over.)